HEALTHBEHAVIOURINSCHOOL-AGEDCHILDREN

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION COLLABORATIVE CROSS-NATIONAL SURVEY

HBSC News

News Item: HBSC Scotland: 2014 national report published

A new report on the health of Scottish youth has found declining mental health patterns among 13-15 year old girls.

The study into the health and wellbeing of young people in Scotland aged 11, 13 and 15 was carried out by academics at the University of St Andrews.

Young people reported their feelings and habits, including those relating to family life, school, peer relations, eating habits, physical activity, body image, substance use, sexual health and bullying.

Although young people in Scotland generally report high life-satisfaction (87%), the HBSC Scotland report found a wide gender gap in mental health with substantially more girls than boys reporting psychological stress, health complaints (including nervousness and low mood) and medicine use. This gender gap is especially wide for 15-year olds. Over half of 15-year old girls (54%) report having two or more health complaints more than once a week, compared to 29% of boys this age.

The Principal Investigator for the study was Candace Currie, Professor of Child and Adolescent Health and Director of CAHRU (Child and Adolescent Health Research Unit) at the University of St Andrews. She said, "We have observed concerning changes in teenage girls' mental health, especially over the past four years. In 2014 15-year old girls are around twice as likely as boys to report irritability, nervousness and low mood. Moreover, for boys and girls of all ages there has been relatively little improvement in some key health behaviours such as fruit and vegetable consumption over the past 12 years. There are also some good news stories. For example, we have seen dramatic reductions in some risky behaviours, such as smoking, alcohol consumption and early sexual intercourse for some groups."